MCLA Bracketology, May 3

May Madness is underway in the MCLA as there've already been four bids awarded and two conference champions without AQs.

LSA Division I Champion: Texas

SELC Division I Champion: Georgia

SELC Division II Champion: Liberty

UMLC Division II Champion: St. Thomas

Non-AQ Champions

UMLC Division I Champion: Duluth

LSA Division II Champion: Sam Houston State

Central Collegiate Lacrosse Association

Tournament: May 3-4 at Saline East High School — Saline, Mich.

Division IWhen you analyze the outcomes of the SELC Tournament in conjunction to that of the GRLC tournament field, the CCLA seems more and more like a one-bid league.

Favorite
Michigan State (11-2, 6-0 CCLA)
RPI: 10

In Contention
Pittsburgh (10-6, 5-1 CCLA)
RPI: 24

Davenport (11-4, 4-2 CCLA)
RPI: 14

Western Michigan (4-8, 2-4 CCLA)
RPI: 65

Division IIAs the one-seed with the highest national ranking in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse MCLA poll, Grove City is technically the favorite. However, the Wolverines played a much lighter national schedule than Grand Valley and Indiana Tech and didn’t even meet those two powers in the regular season. This tournament is down to the final four with Grove City advancing past Dearborn, GVSU taking down Dayton, Indiana Tech squashing Aquinas and Siena Heights beating John Carroll; the Blue Streaks of JCU will compete in NCAA DIII next year.

Favorite Grove City (11-1, 3-0 CCLA South)
RPI: 14

In ContentionIndiana Tech (7-5, 4-0 CCLA West)
RPI: 16

Grand Valley State (8-6, 3-1 CCLA West)
RPI: 15

Siena Heights (12-2, 2-2 CCLA South)
RPI: 37

Great Rivers Lacrosse Conference

Tournament: May 3-5 at Lindenwood-Belleville University — Belleville, Ill.

Division IWhen considering the theory that the best teams play their best lacrosse at this part of the season, it stands to reason that Illinois managed to beat Indiana last week. Unfortunately for the Illini, costly hiccups earlier in the season are keeping them out of the GRLC postseason. Iowa challenges Illinois State for the right to play Indiana in one semifinal while Purdue and Missouri battle it out to meet Wisconsin in the other. Just for good measure, Illinois has an RPI of 32 and should have had at least one MCLA Tournament team on their schedule between Michigan State and Simon Fraser.

FavoriteWisconsin (10-4, 5-0 GRLC West)
RPI: 42

In ContentionIndiana (10-3, 3-1 GRLC East)
RPI: 44

Purdue (6-4, 3-1 GRLC East)
RPI: 39

Illinois State (5-4, 3-2 GRLC East)
RPI: 45

Iowa (7-6, 4-1 GRLC West)
RPI: 56

Missouri (4-7, 3-2 GRLC West)
RPI: 56

Division IIIt’s an interesting looking bracket; I think Missouri State, Lindenwood-Belleville or Missouri Baptist takes it, with Missouri State being the primary favorite as of now.

Pioneer Collegiate Lacrosse Conference

Tournament: May 4, May 5 at Brown University — Providence, R.I.

Division INortheastern shutout New Hampshire, 8-0 in the play-in round to create an amazing, rivalry rematch between Northeastern and Boston College in the semis. BU hosts Buffalo tonight to see who plays UConn in Providence tomorrow. The higher seed hosts the play-in round, but it’s interesting to note that Buffalo agreed to always play away from home in the regional postseason when they switched over from the CCLA. If VA Tech or Clemson had performed better in the SELC’s it would have improved UConn’s at-large chances; BC is still the favorite and has a quality OOC win over Texas.

FavoriteBoston College (11-0, 6-0 Pioneer)
RPI: 4

In ContentionConnecticut (11-1, 5-1 Pioneer)
RPI: 8

Northeastern (8-6, 3-3 Pioneer)
RPI: 26

Northeastern (8-6, 3-3 Pioneer)
RPI: 26

Buffalo (7-7, 3-3 Pioneer)
RPI: 34

Boston University (6-5, 3-3 Pioneer)
RPI: 46

Division IIBriarcliffe beat Central Connecticut State 11-6 to meet Bridgewater in the semifinals. The Bulldogs beat Braircliffe 17-7 in the regular season so we have got to be destined for another BC-USGC clash for the title. Coast Guard was granted national tournament eligibility by the Academy for the first time in program history and has Stonehill in the semis.

FavoriteCoast Guard (10-1, 4-0 Pioneer South)
RPI: 15

In ContentionBriarcliffe (6-5, 3-1 Pioneer South)
RPI: 18

Bridgewater (5-3, 3-0 Pioneer North)
RPI: 42

Stonehill (8-4, 2-1 Pioneer North)
RPI: 46

Lone Star Alliance

Division ITexas beat Texas State to earn the AQ. Texas State had a great season under Mike Brand, while SMU should be proud of the way they competed this year; the Mustangs had some huge wins and were noble to self-report the academic violation which ended their season.

Division IISam Houston State won the title and is a lock for an at-large spot. It will be interesting to see where the Bearkats will be seeded considering all of their quality victories come out of the crowded SELC.

Pacific Northwest Collegiate Lacrosse League

Tournament: May 4, May 5 at Wilsonville High School — Wilsonville, Ore.

Division IIt’s hard to see how the Ducks don’t get an at-large bid as long as they make the conference championship game. With that, Simon Fraser-Oregon State can be a game for a bid when considering Simon Fraser’s win over Michigan State and Oregon State’s win over Sonoma State.

FavoriteOregon (10-4, 3-0 PNCLL)
RPI: 13

In ContentionSimon Fraser (11-5, 4-0 PNCLL)
RPI: 23

Oregon State (11-3, 2-1 PNCLL)
RPI: 36

Washington (5-8, 3-1 PNCLL)
RPI: 71

Division IIHistory and 2013 strength of schedule dictate that Western Oregon will win this AQ. Western Washington beat Southern Oregon to meet the WOU Wolves while Gonzaga-Portland came to be the other semi with Portland’s win over Puget Sound.

FavoriteWestern Oregon (9-4, 4-0 PNCLL South)
RPI: 6

In ContentionGonzaga (8-2, 4-0 PNCLL North)
RPI: 23

Portland (12-3, 3-1 PNCLL South)
RPI: 28

Western Washington (5-7, 3-1 PNCLL North)
RPI: 51

Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference

Tournament: May 3, May 4 at Walker Field — Grand Junction, Colo.

Division IOne way or another, Colorado State, Colorado and BYU are all going to the tournament. It’s just a matter of who advances in the BYU-Colorado

FavoriteColorado State (15-0, 5-0 RMLC)
RPI: 1

In ContentionColorado (14-1, 4-1 RMLC)
RPI: 2

BYU (14-3, 3-2 RMLC)
RPI: 7

Utah (7-9, 2-3 RMLC)
RPI: 43

Division II Now that Northern Colorado and Fort Lewis have advanced, the best teams are now in the RMLC DII Final Four, but count on Westminster to win it all and represent this region alone in Greenville.

FavoriteWestminster (11-4, 2-0 RMLC West)
RPI: 4

In ContentionMontana (5-6, 3-1 RMLC East)
RPI: 31

Fort Lewis (8-8, 2-1 RMLC West)
RPI: 40

Northern Colorado (5-5, 3-1 RMLC East)
RPI: 41

Southeastern Lacrosse Conference

Division IA very exciting race to the finish to get a rematch between Georgia and Georgia Tech at Titan Stadium on the Campus of Northview H.S. in Johns Creek, GA. The Dawgs get the nod in a league which Clemson really wanted this year, ultimately being the host institution in Greenville.

Division IILiberty took it all and will most likely be joined in Greenville by Palm Beach Atlantic, Elon and SCAD, who made an impressive push to the final to challenge for at-large status.

Southwestern Lacrosse Conference

Tournament: May 3, May 5 at Del Notre High School — San Diego, Calif.

Division I
Let me just say this about the state of the current SLC postseason, it is the most exciting in the country as any of the final four teams can take that AQ and bring the other three with them to South Carolina for Nationals…I guess Chapman is technically the favorite with

FavoriteChapman (13-4, 6-0 SLC North)
RPI: 9

In ContentionArizona State (14-2, 3-1 SLC South)
RPI: 3

UCSB (12-5, 5-1 SLC North)
RPI: 5

Grand Canyon (8-4, 4-0 SLC South)
RPI: 6

Division III think Concordia is a clear cut favorite with their high-tempo Canadian inspired offense but Fullerton has evaded a great deal of negative perception to remain very competitive at this level.

FavoriteConcordia (10-3, 5-0 SLC South)
RPI: 5

In ContentionFullerton (14-4, 4-1 SLC South)
RPI: 9

UC-San Diego (9-3, 3-2 SLC South)
RPI: 20

Occidental (8-3, 5-1 SLC North)
RPI: 39

Upper Midwest Lacrosse Conference

Division ITwo great seasons by Duluth and Minnesota in a difficult year without an AQ, if Cal Poly wins the WCLL by upset, it will make things interesting for Sam Litman’s UMD Bulldogs, who won the 2013 UMLC Championship.

Division IIIf things continue this way, St. Thomas is going to outgrow the word elite. St.John’s will be looking for revenge against the Tommies at the national level while North Dakota State should be back in Greenville.

Western Collegiate Lacrosse League

Tournament: May 4, May 5 at Novato High School — Novato, Calif.

Division IDespite how they were perceived throughout most of last season in addition to their slump in 2013, we should all know by now that Cal Poly is no dark horse now that they have beaten Stanford. One way or another, I think this is a three bid league.

FavoriteSonoma (11-3, 6-0 WCLL)
RPI: 12

In ContentionStanford (12-3, 4-2 WCLL)
RPI: 15

Cal (9-5, 4-2)
RPI: 16

Cal Poly (7-7, 4-2)
RPI: 25

Division III predict Saint Mary’s will win the WCLL DII Championship but nobody is going to the Greenville from this league without an AQ.

Bracket Predictions

After the dust settles and the selection committee considers quality wins from the conference tournaments, this is what I think the postseason picture will look like.